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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

Great story, Peyton! Life can be a sharp poke in the eye. Perhaps, you should have hung in there a bit longer. Get rid of Wayne, find a decent piano, and I am sure things would have turned out better. But, then again maybe not. Who knows?

After two weeks on the John Muir Trail we pulled into Red's Meadow near Mammoth Lakes, Calif. We were really looking forward to a beer and hamburgers at the diner.

We walked in, and in a corner was an old upright. It had seen better days. The ivory keys were blackened and grimy, undoubtedly from that big fire 30 years ago. It was probably last tuned when it was delivered, possibly in the '30s judging from the sheet music on the desk.

Let's just say it was a little rough.

Hey! I heard that piano, but didn't play it as I was passing through Red's Meadow on my Pacific Crest Trail trek. I don't recall it sounding that bad, so it must get at least some attention.

There are a few pianos in the practice rooms at my university that are terrible. The worst have the lower few octaves that continue to sustain after playing the keys, and I'm sure all of them have spit on the keys from the other wind instrumentalists playing over them.

And, this is OT, but does anyone else think that acoustics sound weird after playing a lot on a digital? This Christmas break I played on my dad's digital piano for a couple weeks. And then the first 10 minutes or so that I resumed playing on an acoustic piano I thought there was a lot of extra resonance/noise coming from the piano. After those first few minutes I didn't notice it anymore and kind of thought my my brain started filtering out those extra sounds.

Great story, Peyton! Life can be a sharp poke in the eye. Perhaps, you should have hung in there a bit longer. Get rid of Wayne, find a decent piano, and I am sure things would have turned out better. But, then again maybe not. Who knows?

At least you have this great story.

I heard a quote once that I like. "God made man because he likes a good story." If that's true He sure gets his share....

A certain establishment in downtown New Orleans had a smaller grand sitting outside in November-December a year back, and they had it painted with one of their logos. It sounded atrocious. I passed it every day on my way to and from work, and it made me so sad that they would be so mean to that poor piano. They were also trying to promote an upscale event they were holding, and it gave me insight about that company's appearances and their actual reality

Worst pianos I've played? Seen a few poor old neglected pianos- the worst one was left in a garden ( having been "rescued" from the road) and had keys falling off, warped and cracked lid, sodden strings etc. The woman who found it thought it might be able to be repaired. !!!

Sure, if you replace every single piece, every string, all the felt, the frame, the soundboard...

Indeed Derulux- she is an eccentric, bit spacey artist who likes to rescue old pianos in the hope they can just be "tuned" and work again. I took a piano tech to meet her- to give her the sad news- she in fact had 2 of them- at least one was in an old coach house and not in the garden! I think she knew the one in the garden had had it but the one in the garage she still had hopes for. We told her to use it as an art installation. It's sad when pianos come to the end of their lives.

A certain establishment in downtown New Orleans had a smaller grand sitting outside in November-December a year back, and they had it painted with one of their logos. It sounded atrocious. I passed it every day on my way to and from work, and it made me so sad that they would be so mean to that poor piano. They were also trying to promote an upscale event they were holding, and it gave me insight about that company's appearances and their actual reality

Ha! You remembered! I posted this here because it's amazing what neglect can make a piano sound like. This is a Yamaha C3 from the early 90s. I recorded this after I had it brought home a few months ago. The first owners had never tuned the thing, in almost 20 years of ownership. When I played it at their house, they were sitting around listening as if it sounded good! I was trying to ignore the sound and imagine what it would sound like when tuned and regulated. And oh BOY, is it lovely now laugh

Moral of the story: take care of your piano! A good piano that's neglected will sound awful, just like this one did.

Yes I do- I remember you posted a link to playing your piano after tuning- cannot remember where the post is- can you point me to it?

I'm guessing this will not take off and become a wildly popular thread on the order of AOTW, Rostoky's, and so on. However, I'm hoping it will be a fun counterpoint to all the "I happened to spot a Fazioli at the piano store the other day..." and "there's this great Bösendorfer at work that I play on my lunch hour..." stories that make me green with envy!

Please post if you have any war stories, or even better, video or audio evidence!!

Below isn't the worst one I've ever played, it just happens to be the only one for which I have video, because it's mine. Listen for my daughter's reaction in the middle:

[video:youtube]dR6gezYWBXs[/video]

I have access to two other truly hideous pianos, I might take videos of those too -- just for yucks. On mine, at least the keys are all intact and the action is OK. The keys are sticking much more lately vs. when this recording was made in mid-December, but it's fine in warmer weather for some reason.

Thanks. So far it hasn't fared all that well since the initial tuning. There were a couple sour notes after just a couple weeks, which was disappointing. Definitely not the tuner's fault though. Now at 7 weeks post-tuning, it doesn't sound very good, but it is still an awful lot better than the video posted above.

I'm planning to have it tuned again May, hopefully timed nicely for ABFR #30, but we'll see.

It's one thing to tune it and have it sound good for a few days or a couple weeks. The real test will be to see how it does after its 3rd tuning. That's where I figure I'll have my answer re: if it's going to be serviceable over the long term or not.

If it sticks, I'll post an "after" video. I'm hoping Sam S will do that too.

"...when you do practice properly, it seems to take no time at all. Just do it right five times or so, and then stop." -- JimF

I'm going to relate a story that is not mine, but was told with great hilarity by my Russian piano teacher. He speaks with a thick, rumbling Russian accent and we had all had a few glasses of wine which added to the laughter. Many years ago, after he had earned a bachelor's degree from a Novosibirsk conservatory, the refined and educated Alexei was obligated to serve in the Soviet army. He was stationed at a bleak and cold place on the Chinese border. Conditions were harsh and he missed his music and his former life.

His superior officer, an unpleasant and cruel man who knew nothing about music, had purchased a used upright piano for his granddaughter. When he bought it, he was told it was an excellent instrument and he paid a high price for it. The officer heard that Alexei was a musician and called him into his office. He growled that the "new" piano was broken and implied that it was Alexei's fault. He then ordered Alexei to fix the piano immediately. Alexei was terrified because he had no idea how to fix a piano but he had to obey a direct order.

Upon opening the fallboard of the dilapidated upright, Alexei observed that most of the ivories were missing from the keys. "Uh, oh. Thees eees not loooking so good." When he sat down to play, there was no sound whatsoever. Perplexed, he opened the piano to discover this "excellent instrument" did not have single string. Horrified, he wondered how he was going to obey a direct order from his martinet-like officer. There was no way he could contradict the officer by stating the piano was a piece of junk. (By now, we were all laughing our heads off). Upon closer inspection, he found that the base of the piano was filled with what appeared to be a large rat's nest. He then discovered that the nest contained little hairless baby rats and the parents had eaten most of the piano felt.

I wish you could have been there when he related this story because it was hilarious and yes, he did fix the piano, went on to earn a masters degree in conducting and immigrated to the U.S.

Not a piano, but a little pedal organ. It was in the little unused Victorian chapel on the campus of Winthrop University. It was derelict, and I was lucky to even get a wheeze or two out of it but I did manage to pick out a tune or two. That was when I was a seventeen year old kid who'd try anything.

Thanks. So far it hasn't fared all that well since the initial tuning. There were a couple sour notes after just a couple weeks, which was disappointing. Definitely not the tuner's fault though. Now at 7 weeks post-tuning, it doesn't sound very good, but it is still an awful lot better than the video posted above.

I'm planning to have it tuned again May, hopefully timed nicely for ABFR #30, but we'll see.

It's one thing to tune it and have it sound good for a few days or a couple weeks. The real test will be to see how it does after its 3rd tuning. That's where I figure I'll have my answer re: if it's going to be serviceable over the long term or not.

If it sticks, I'll post an "after" video. I'm hoping Sam S will do that too.

I do hope it hangs in there aTallGuyNH! I think Sam did post an after somewhere a few months ago but where on the forum I cannot remember. Hope he jogs my memory!

Not a piano, but a little pedal organ. It was in the little unused Victorian chapel on the campus of Winthrop University. It was derelict, and I was lucky to even get a wheeze or two out of it but I did manage to pick out a tune or two. That was when I was a seventeen year old kid who'd try anything.

He was a marvelous teacher and I learned a tremendous amount from him. He was also a great story teller. I stopped taking lessons from him a few years ago and moved on to a teacher with higher level piano skills, but I will always remember Alexei with deep respect and affection. Sadly, he took my leaving him personally and cut off contact.

I was hoping you guys wouldn't find it and I could post a better recording when I had the time. The playing in those recordings is awful. But you can still hear the dramatic difference the tuning made. It doesn't sound like the same instrument at all.

Playing since age 21 (September 2010) and loving it more every day."You can play better than BachMach2." - Mark_CCurrently Butchering:Chopin Ballade no 1 in G minor Op.23My Piano Diary: http://www.youtube.com/sirsardonic♪ > $

I was hoping you guys wouldn't find it and I could post a better recording when I had the time. The playing in those recordings is awful. But you can still hear the dramatic difference the tuning made. It doesn't sound like the same instrument at all.

I aspire to be as awful as you some day....

"...when you do practice properly, it seems to take no time at all. Just do it right five times or so, and then stop." -- JimF

I was hoping you guys wouldn't find it and I could post a better recording when I had the time. The playing in those recordings is awful. But you can still hear the dramatic difference the tuning made. It doesn't sound like the same instrument at all.

Sam- awful??? I wish I was that GOOD! I could not even play a bar of this music. And you had got to that stage in a year. In a year I am still plonking below grade 1 pieces. I don't think you realise how talented you are!

It's one thing to tune it and have it sound good for a few days or a couple weeks. The real test will be to see how it does after its 3rd tuning.

Ask your tuner if it would help to use ethyl cyanoacrylate on the pins, perhaps just the loose ones.

Glueing the pins?? I've never heard of this... it strikes me as an approach that would invariably present problems down the road, but what do I know.

Regardless, they are not loose, it's just the nature of the beast when it is as out of tune as you can hear in the video above. In order to tune it, an enormous amount of pressure must be applied to the frame of the piano (a ton was the estimate I was given), and it's going to be pulling back to where it was before. Even if you weld the pins in place, it's not going to keep the piano in tune.

"...when you do practice properly, it seems to take no time at all. Just do it right five times or so, and then stop." -- JimF

[Ask your tuner if it would help to use ethyl cyanoacrylate on the pins, perhaps just the loose ones.

Glueing the pins?? I've never heard of this... [/quote]

Search for cyanoacrylate in the technicians forum. It's far better than previous pinblock chemical treatments. It gets years of extra life out of pianos that would otherwise be junked. There's a high probability that it would help those few strings that go south the fastest.

Hey! I heard that piano, but didn't play it as I was passing through Red's Meadow on my Pacific Crest Trail trek. I don't recall it sounding that bad, so it must get at least some attention.

Maybe there should be a pianos on the PCT thread.

We just did a four day hike to finish Section E. After we finished, we went into Tehachapi for lunch. We were hungry!We stopped at the Tehachapi Museum which has a very good exhibit of Indian basketry for a small unfunded museum.

They also have a restored house with an old Ludwig upright. Surprisingly, the docent said, "Sure, it works. Sit down a play if you want."

It needed a tuning, but actually, it wasn't far off. It was at least close to being in tune to itself. The action was not bad, it had nice dynamics and the ivory keys were in pretty good shape.